The Hunting Wasps 



I am about to witness. The terrified Cricket 

 takes to flight, hopping as fast as he can; the 

 Sphex pursues him hot-foot, reaches him, 

 rushes upon him. There follows, amid the 

 dust, a confused encounter, wherein each 

 champion, now victor, now vanquished, by 

 turns is at the top or at the bottom. Success, 

 for a moment undecided, at last crowns the 

 aggressor's efforts. Despite his vigorous 

 kicks, despite the snaps of his pincer-like 

 mandibles, the Cricket is laid low and 

 stretched upon his back. 



The murderess soon makes her arrange- 

 ments. She places herself belly to belly 

 with her adversary, but in the opposite direc- 

 tion, grasps one of the threads at the tip of 

 the Cricket's abdomen with her mandibles 

 and masters with her fore-legs the convulsive 

 efforts of his thick hinder thighs. At the 

 same time, her middle-legs hug the heaving 

 sides of the beaten insect; and her hind-legs, 

 pressing like two levers on the front of the 

 head, force the joint of the neck to open 

 wide. The Sphex then curves her abdomen 

 vertically, so as to offer only an unattack- 

 able convex surface to the Cricket's mandi- 

 bles; and we see, not without emotion, its 

 poisoned lancet drive once into the victim's 

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